Lovely posts, maeve. Those fruit trees are Maine trees, and I fervently hope the worst they experience is nature's pruning that will only make them stronger and more resilient over the years of their lives.

Pete, I hope Tommy's evening set-back is nothing more than the "normal" set-back that affects many sick people in the later hours and that each morning he becomes stronger than the last and future evening set-backs become milder.

Maeve, I knew you had that wonderful wood stove and am glad to read you have water stored. When I used to live in a rural area we had a hand pump attached to the water line where it entered our basement! It sounds like you indoor chook is getting stronger and stronger. Shows what love and care can do!

Thanks, Sins. We are just fine. With that excellent wood stove, plenty of stove wood and water stored, and two people used to living simply, we enjoy such times and manage to lend a hand to neighbors when needed.

The chooks are tired of coop living, but happy and healthy otherwise, with a delicious Christmas dinner of veggies and melon trimmings. The inside chicken showed off her hard-won ability to stand and walk a few steps with a great excitement of clucks and feathers. You'd like her, I'm sure.

We could worry about our many fruit trees, all of which have inch-thick ice armor on and around every twig and branch, but it would do no good. We'll just see what happens. Snow tomorrow on top of ice- more exploding trees and power outages, I'd guess.

Maeve, I have been worried about you and the chickens. A wood stove is a blessing in an ice storm. I saw that a couple not far from you were overcome by carbon monoxide and had to be hospitalized. Stay safe.

Master Tommy, rest easy. One breath at a time young man. One at a time.

Warm thoughts and cheers from me in Maine. I couldn't post a reply to recent posts before- power has been out since Monday due to the ice storm that left an inch (measured) of ice on all surfaces, every tree and twig. Branches are tearing off and falling, trees explode with the cold, and when the sun showed its face today the world was filled with prismatic diamonds.

Thinking of the good news and the worries expressed here, and sending blessings as needed.

We watched the midnight service from Westminster Abbey, beautiful music. Thinking of Tommy in our prayers, Christmas can be bitter sweet, holding you in our thoughts Pete and hope the morning brings in a sunny day.

pleased to report that tommy is on the up. he will be in still, over xmas, but part of his special needs is an aversion to too much festive fuss anyway. he is breathing for himself with the ventilator only as back up. his bladder and bowel functions are now working , which was a concern with his myotonia as these and the respiratory could have shut down. thank God he seems to seems to have pulled through again. thankyou friends for your prayers and kind thoughts. I was very touched by your concern.

good to hear that circumstances with tams family are encouraging, and please God, there be some relief from the pain and sickness too. blessings all pete.

Hello and warm wishes for a holiday seaons filled with making good memories and / or calling them up.

I have some good news re Chris Mum and Dad. Pam has relented and is permitting someone to come in and clean for 1 hour every other week. Age Concer got them hooked up to a community group which brings in meals 2 days a week. All of this is a boon to Arthur who is feeling less isolated by Pam's need for constant supervision. Their friends are stepping in more too. They too Arthur to have his cateracts surgery and stayed with Pam while he was in for a while after as he recuperated. They meet every other week for a meal out too. God bless friends.

Good news re my kids. They both have real jobs. Hilary will soon have health insurance and may even be considered for a management post. Her partner and his 2 young school aged children have moved in with her into a 3 bed house, near the kid's school and near community swimming pool. She is feeling so much better physically and is even making noises about wanting a baby.

My son has been hired part time by the company for which he has been doing contract work over the last couple of months. Fingers crossed this will soon become full time and he can get health insurance too. He is happy in relationship with a lovely girl who actually shared some classes with sister Andie. She is around the same age Andie would be. Funnily, my son looks so like my little brother Timmy and his girlfriend looks like she could be the younger sister of Timmy's wife. If we ever have a family reunion I am going to be doing constant double takes.

I am still pretty sick and in pain but I feel a lot happier knowing my kids are well and happy.

tommy still ill and moved to evilena kids hosp on ventilator ,unable to breath for himself yet, and not tolerating feed. slight reduction of whiteout on last x ray but not out of danger. thank God for the far better staff at evilena, who are working on him. thanks all, blessings pete

My surgeon admired the bruise, well, maybe not admired it, but he wasn't unphappy & explained it will twake a few weeks to vanish completely! And the results from the pathology lab - there was nothing nasty in the vein which was removed!

I'll be seeing my surgeon in a few hours - what looked on Thursday like a smallish scar with several splotches of blood has developed into a gi-normous & itchy purple & red bruise! I realise it is part of the healing process, but I'm pleased it's hidden from view. It looks like I've been attacked with a large piece of wood rather than a thin scalpel.

Linn... use a mic and the 'sound recorder' in your programs. You might have to fiddle with the recording volume and distance between the answering machine and mic. Glad to hear you return trip was good.

Just back from the session (which I left early) and I'm here eating supper (left over pizza from lunch) before going upstairs and collapsing.

I had started to fade (it's been a loooong day and it started in another time zone) and thought it would be a good idea to actually be HOME when that happened...

I had uneventful flights, thank goodness. On time, too. First flight, though, I've ever been on where the plane had to be de-iced first (in Milwaukee). Gotta ask my pilot friends what is used -- saline? alcohol? secret chemical combination?

My friend Lorna played hooky from work and picked me up in Manchester, took me back to her place in Dover to pick up my car, and I drove home via Pizza Spinners. I guess I never really ate anything for breakfast and the cup of coffee, glass of Sprite and 2 packages each of honey roasted peanuts and pretzels (can you tell I'm flying Southwest?) didn't really go too far. I got home at 1:30 p.m.

Made my way through over two hundred emails, but somewhere in the middle checked my phone messages. Only a couple because people knew I was out of town, so I thought while I was there maybe I should erase some of the earlier messages. A couple messages in was Tom from the day before he died asking if I was on my way to the hospital...and bawled my head off. Needless to say, that message was saved. Anybody got any idea what the best way to digitize that message and Tom's (pre-vocal cord cancer) message on the voicemail message (at Comcast)?

I have been at the hospital most of the day and we have been clearing up both ends for tommy. we are hoping the antibiotics are kicking in and the yellow mess he threw up during a tube feed was infection exiting. feeds stopped today ,on fluid drip till tomorrow. thanks again for your prayers and well wishes. blessings all pete.

Sending light and love to you all- for many of us, this is the darkest time of the year, and we feel it. Light is returning, and my wish for you all is that we and our loved ones, all of us, feel the light inside ourselves. This place is indeed a beacon of light!

Yesterday I walked to my local hospital for a small op (Day surgery) which was delayed for an hour as the printer was not working - surgeons, anaesthetists, nurses etc all held up cos the printers did not give them the paperwork they needed!

So those of us who arrived at 6.30 for the 7am ops waited. I normally get to bed around 2, sometimes later (the previous night at 4am) so I had gone to bed around 10pm (soooo early) I'm not an early bird so it was interesting to see the folks entering & leaving the 24 hour gym & the other folks out at that ungodly hour.

I was up & walking around well before 11am when my friend collected me. Small scar, no pain, but it could be a pre-cancer (9 out of 10 are ok, but...) I would have preferred 99 out of 100, or even 999 out of 1000.

I'll be seeing the surgeon on Monday, but he is unlikely to get the pathology results until after Christmas. At the moment I'm not worried, but I'm very good at getting worried at later dates & the holiday season is never my favourite time as my normal events shut down (craft groups, & other regular events) & everyone has family around & I'm one of those without family mentioned by Nigel. But I do have friend, even tho some will be away on their summer holidays others are around.